Walking in Jesus's Footsteps along the Galilee's Gospel Trail

Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to
you."

Genesis 13:17

Eduward has been in Israel for three months, living in Jerusalem and
volunteering for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, before he made his first
trip to the Galilee.

Like many tourists, the Galilee was not at the top of Eduward's list of things to do. However,after an invitation to walk the newly
redeveloped Gospel Trail prompted him to visit, Eduward quickly realized that
the Galilee offers much more than he had ever anticipated.

Walking where Jesus walked was an emotional trip and the high point of Eduward's
visit to Israel.

"I'm recommending the Gospel Trail to everyone - Christian and even Jewish
people as well, so they can experience where Jesus walked, see the scenery
andhike the trail," Eduward told
Travelujah.

Photo Courtesy: Travelujah - The Gospel Trail

Jesus spent the majority of his life growing up in Nazareth, working in the
community, walking the countryside, bringing his ministry of teaching and
healing throughout the region and performing numerous miracles along the way
from Cana to Tabgha. Even still, Nazareth and the Galilee as a whole have not
yet evolved as an international destination and tourism to the region pales in
comparison to Jerusalem. While more than 87 percent of Christian tourists visit
Jerusalem, only 60 percent of Israel's Christian tourists visit the Galilee, up
from less than 50 percent in 2009.

Why does the Galilee attract fewer Christians despite the fact that Jesus
spent most of his life there?

Part of the answer lies in the fact that the Galilee region, despite
offering an abundance of important sites, is relatively "off the beaten path'
and not as easy to navigate on foot as Jerusalem, which hosts a concentration
of sites proximate to each other.

In an effort to address this, the Israel Ministry of Tourism, along with
its partners at the Jewish National Fund, began planning the Gospel Trail, a
60-kilometer hiking trail, 10 years ago. However, once the second intifada took
root prompting a sharp drop in tourism plans for the Gospel Trail were put on
hold.

Fast forward several years to 2010. Israel had experienced a dramatic rise
in Christian tourism culminatingin a
record-breaking 2.3 million Christian tourists, representing two thirds of the
3.45 million tourists who visited the country in 2010. The Christian sector was
demonstrating the strongest growth of all sectors too. While Jewish tourism had
grown from 800,000 to 1 million in the last five years, Christian tourism was
up over fourfold, from just under 500,000 tourists in 2005 to 2.3 million
tourists in 2010. Tourism officials made the Gospel Trail a priority and, at a
cost of $600,000, the well marked trail was unveiled a couple months ago.

The Gospel Trail begins at the Mount of Precipice in Nazareth where,
according to Luke 4:14-28, Jesus was rejected by his townsmen who threatened to
throw him over the mountainside. Thetrail travels down the ancient "Pilgrims Path" 500 meters to the Jezreel
Valley below, and continues along the Nazareth Range providing views of the
Mount Tabor, Kafr Kanna and travels, via the golani Junction to the Horns of Hattinsite of the clash between the Crusader forces
and the Muslim armies under Saladin. It continues past the antiquities of Magdala to
Tabgha, the Mount of Beatitudes, eventually ending at Capernaum and the Sea of
Galilee.

The Gospel Trail experience offers the Christian faithful a unique
opportunity to take a similar path to the one that Jesus would have trodden.

Additional branches of the trail will allow visitors to access other
important sites. A new dock alongside Capernaum allows visitors to include a
boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, where according to Mark 4:35, Jesus calmed the
sea. With a ride to Ein Gev or Tiberias, groups can have the possibility of
including prayer time or singing on the boat. Scripture readings, safety
barriers, shaded rest areas and safety features are to be included and are
expected to be in place along the trail shortly.

Photo Credit Travelujah.com Bishop Marcuzzo leading mass on the Sea of Galilee

The Gospel Trail is part of the Israel Ministry of Tourism's effort to
broaden Israel's tourism product and reach new market segments like hikers and
Christian youth groups. Pilgrimage is viewed as a natural means to self
discovery and attracts young people seeking to connect to their spiritual
roots.

Father Atuire, director of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican
pilgrimage organizer responsible for organizing programs for 750,000 pilgrims
annually, has been actively seeking to reach out to more Christians including
youths, by offering alternative journeys of faith such as walking pilgrimages
to Santiago de Compostela as well as social justice tours of Nepal and packages
to World Youth Day.

The Gospel Trail is envisioned to serve a similar purpose: to connect
youths to pilgrimage by walking in Jesus' footsteps. Pilgrimage is viewed as a
natural means to self discovery and attracts young people seeking to connect to
their spiritual roots.

Latin Patriarchal Vicar Bishop Boutros Marcuzzo accompanied us along a leg
of the Gospel Trail andechoed his
desire for young people to have a direct and spontaneous interaction with
nature along the way.

Travelujah CEO Elisa Moed and Bishop Marcuzzo on the Gospel Trail

"We want young people to come," he told Travelujah. "And this trail is very
encouraging for young people."

The Gospel Trail was developed in consultation with Evangelical, Protestant
and Orthodox church leaders and provides pilgrims and others an opportunity to
experience the Holy Land on foot while connecting in a spiritual and physical
way to the Biblical landscapes that feature in Jesus' life.

The Gospel Trail comes on the heels of another popular northern Israel hike
also catering to Christian tourists, the Jesus Trail. The Jesus Trail follows a
similar route as the new Gospel Trail and to a large extent serves the same
function.However, the Jesus Trail
encourages a bit more diversity as it passes through some outlying Arab
villages in the Galilee while the Gospel Trail, focuses more on exploring the
indigenous nature of the region.

By highlighting their connection to important holy sites, both bring a
much-needed awareness to the Galilee, a region that is still often overlooked
by visitors to Israel, though, perhaps, not for much longer.

"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming
the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the
people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who
were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed,
those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from
Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan
followed him."

Matthew 4:23-25

* * * * * * *

Elisa L. Moed is the Founder and CEO of Travelujah -Holy Land Tours (http://www.travelujah.com). A 24 year tourism consulting veteran, Elisa has worked for many international chains, banks, developers and hotel management companies in her role as a specized hospitality ndustry consutlant..

Travelujah is the leading Christian social network focused on travel to the Holy |Land.

Comments

I'm really sure you had a terrific trip to Israel. I wish you can document all your experience on a term papers for us to understood more.

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